Hazing victim collapsed while eating, pals relate
By Nancy C. Carvajal, Philip C. TubezaPhilippine Daily Inquirer
Six more San Beda law students who were subjected by the Lex Leonum Fraternitas to the same initiation rites as deceased victim Marc Andre Marcos have been identified.
A top school official said the names of the six neophytes were now with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
“In our investigation, a total of nine students joined the Lex Leonum Fraternitas initiation rites on Sunday, including Andre, and some of these names are already with the NBI,” San Beda Dean Liezel Taleon told the Inquirer on the sidelines of the mass vigil at the school gym on Friday.
Taleon, dean of San Beda school of discipline, said they also provided the NBI with the names of 20 students who were present during the initiation rites on Sunday in Dasmariñas, Cavite.
“We are cooperating with the investigation into the death of Andre,” she said.
She said the students, mostly in their third year, “have stopped attending classes.”
Two neophytes, Ryan Maranan and Ed Lara, who were also subjected to hazing like Marcos have surfaced and narrated their ordeal to authorities.
Based on the sworn affidavits of Maranan and Lara, their fellow neophyte Marcos collapsed while eating after enduring the hazing that began in the morning and lasted until the early evening of July 29.
NBI Cavite chief Alvin Rebadulla confirmed they had the names, but declined to release them.
“We have the names of the students and we have talked to the relatives of some of them,” Rebadulla told the Inquirer.
Taleon said another 20 students of the San Beda law school face administrative cases for violation of the school policy on underground organizations.
“The students will be accorded due process before any disciplinary action will be imposed,” she said, adding that violators face expulsion or suspension.
Cavite police director Senior Supt. John Bulalacao said on Saturday that Maranan and Lara gave investigators a full narration of what transpired.
Bulalacao said the police would also charge with murder Cornelio Marcelo, who allegedly recruited Marcos, and others involved in the hazing “who will not cooperate with investigators.”
“We have leads on their identities. They are either students of San Beda Alabang or San Beda in Mendiola,” Bulalacao said.
Aside from the nine neophytes, he said witnesses told police there were 15 others who participated in the hazing.
Primary suspect Gian Angelo Veluz, whose family owns the farm where the hazing took place, failed to surrender on Friday.
Bulalacao said PNP Director General Nicanor Bartolome was coordinating with other government agencies to secure hold departure orders against the suspects to prevent them from leaving the country.
In their sworn affidavits, Maranan and Lara narrated the events that transpired from the time fraternity members went to a bar in Las Piñas City on July 28 until the time that Marcos collapsed the next day.
Bulalacao said at 8 a.m. on July 29, the group boarded five to six vehicles and proceeded to the Veluz farm in Dasmariñas.
“They were blindfolded until they reached the farm at around 9 a.m. Then the hazing started,” he said.
“(Maranan and Lara) were grouped with Marcos and they said the handler of their particular group was Veluz,” Bulalacao said.
Bulalacao said the initiation rites lasted until early evening of July 29.
“So after the ceremony and the paddling was over, their blindfolds were removed and they ate together,” he said.
“It was while they were eating that Marcos collapsed, causing the fraternity elders to panic,” Bulalacao quoted Maranan and Lara as saying. With Cynthia D. Balana
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Tags: Hazing death , Lex Leonum Fraternitas , Marc Andre Marcos , National Bureau of Investigation
